Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include direct attached storage (DAS) network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Networked storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple clients with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system executing a storage operating system for storing and retrieving data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”). The storage operating system typically stores and manages shared data containers in a set of mass storage devices.
Storage systems are used in virtual environments where a physical resource is time-shared among a plurality of independently operating processor executable virtual machines. Cloud computing with virtual machines also continues to grow in popularity. Cloud computing in this context means computing capability that provides an abstraction between a computing resource and its underlying technical and physical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network-based access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
To efficiently provide cloud services, various resources within the cloud environment should be configured to efficiently make policy decisions. Continuous efforts are being made to efficiently implement policies in the cloud computing environment.